“At first, I said it sounded like they should have a female, since it’s a women march,” the 89-year-old Brotman told the Washington Post. “And they said that they have all the women they want, and at this particular scene I would add to it.”

When he was informed by the Trump transition team that he would not be announcing the inauguration parade, the distraught Brotman told CNN, “I thought I was going to commit suicide.”

“I looked at my email, then I got the shock of my life,” he said. “I felt like Muhammad Ali had hit me in the stomach.”